


within a breadth's reach

by sundowns



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Confessions, Hiking, M/M, Mountaineering, Pining, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 08:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10827597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundowns/pseuds/sundowns
Summary: With the Sendai city lights and the night stars combined, Iwaizumi thinks Oikawa Tooru shines the brightest.





	within a breadth's reach

**Author's Note:**

> for iwaoiweek2017 day 5: which is a free day

Perhaps going on a hike in the near ends of summer is a brilliant idea, after all, Iwaizumi muses as he tugs on his windbreaker. The night breeze feels nice on the hot sweat on his forehead, and he utters a silent thanks to any deity responsible for such an excellent weather. One look to his left and he can tell the other seeming to be feeling good as well, all smiles and cherry cheeks despite the exhaustion relentlessly catching up.

Hiking at Mount Izumigatake in the middle of sundown had been Oikawa's idea. Except not really, it had been both his and Iwaizumi's plan to cross the task off of their summer bucket list—it’s only that the former decides they do it today, and well, coincidentally on a kind weather.

Backpack pulled up, rubber soles sturdy on boulders, they reach the summit a good hour and a half later, breathless but feeling rather accomplished. Oikawa has set a checkered table mantel they took from Iwaizumi's mother's linen cabinet on the scutch grass by the time the sky dimmed and the moon is up for its show. He had insisted not bringing one in favor of a lighter bag load and yet Iwaizumi had been so adamant about it because _you know your skin is sensitive to grass, dumbass_.

And so  _here they are_ , more than 3,800 feet above from civilization.

(—and with the Sendai city lights and the night stars combined, Iwaizumi thinks Oikawa Tooru shines the brightest.)

 

* * *

 

Falling in love with Oikawa Tooru is not falling through a 9.81 m/s2 acceleration. Not 1.62 m/s2 like in the moon. Not lesser than that but a little more than equivalent to vacuum. _Unnoticeable_ —but slow and gradual. Like floating through space, and before he knows it, he's out of breath with the billions of celestial entities in spectacle and lack of air supply. _Very patient_ —taking every single thing too slowly. Studying every parts of him, pondering over body scars, pointing out things of what goes well, merges perfectly and what doesn't—like making a constellation out of stars until he is seeing him in a different kind of light.

It has taken careful hands to mold the way he is in current, with Iwaizumi on the works of the bigger part, and as if through an artist's perspective, he sees his muse as the masterpiece everyone is in awe of—showering him with praises he deserves to receive more than anyone in the world can. Sometimes, he wonders if he's just like any of these spectators where he can only marvel at him from a careful distance.

"Iwa-chan," Oikawa softly mumbles, leaning forward to his knees and facing Iwaizumi with his head tucked in his arms. "You've heard a rumor where the sun is gradually getting bigger and closer to the earth, right?"

He looks so small like this that Iwaizumi wants to take him into his arms. And yet, he doesn't do anything about it and only stares at him with a pleasant throb in his heart. "What of that?"

"It's actually not that but the opposite." Iwaizumi nods, indicating that he's listening to him carefully. Not like it's any different, because that's what he is—always all ears and heart to Oikawa Tooru. "The sun will be shedding its mass off and then converting it into energy by nuclear fusion, and in the next billions of years it'll lose more of its mass while it's in its red giant phase, hence, lessening its gravity." Somehow, he meets Oikawa's gaze halfway and he mulls over the slight sag on the corners of his eyes. He looks wistful more so. "Therefore, the earth will move farther away from it. What do you think of it, Iwa-chan?"

Iwaizumi marvels how laughable the metaphor is to him, because as much as he is in awe with astronomy he's ironically shit at, it's one of the things he has a common ground with Oikawa. This is why he loves discussing it with him (which actually leans more to _listening_ on his part) because it's overwhelming and it makes his head ache.

_The universe really is amazing, isn't?_

 —with the facts and theories and the infinity of it kind of-

"Depressing."

Oikawa huffs out a laugh, the small broadening of his lips making Iwaizumi's heart _thump_ , _thump_ , _thump_.

"Right?" He turns to glance to his front, away from Iwaizumi, and buries half of his face further into his knees. "I don't want the earth to drift away from the sun, Iwa-chan."

Just like this, Iwaizumi wonders what makes him so far and unreachable when he's barely a foot away. Just a couple of houses to the left. Only a ring of the phone. _Within a breadth's reach_. There's always something about Oikawa that he is afraid to touch, as if, if he tries to reach out for _something_ , there won't be anything to grasp but fire that will leave his hand scalded.

Iwaizumi has always thought Oikawa Tooru is too big for the world. He's made out of stars and great ambitions, out of fastened meteoroids and space debris and hopeful foreshadowing. He's the light and heat that makes the planets draw to and orbit around him. Iwaizumi is past his midnight thoughts to surmise he's fitting for exploring the undiscovered parts of the universe, made to go big or go home. And simultaneously, it's exactly why Iwaizumi is afraid Oikawa will find something he'll be contented with enough to fill the insatiable expanse of his head, and that he'll wander off too far he might forget to go back to where he came from.

He's more than just a mass of skin and bones after all, because Iwaizumi looks at him in the eyes and sees stars behind them—perhaps he's made out of constellations more complex and ethereal than the Milky Way and the Andromeda. Because Oikawa Tooru is more than the supernova when he combusts, more than a trillion stars' radiance when he perks up, more than the mass of heavenly bodies combined and Iwaizumi is awed how he's able to carry something as big and as overwhelming as the universe with a heart as small as his own fist.

He stares at the rumple of brown hair before him, so helplessly pensive he might have already shown his whole heart on his sleeve.

"Iwa-chan?"

A star explodes in Oikawa's eye when he, yet again, turns to gaze at him, and Iwaizumi thinks, _ah_. Maybe he's really meant to drift away from him when he grows up and ages and detonates into a supernova during his red giant phase—where parts of him will be destined to travel and conquer even the most arduous labyrinths of space.

Something clicks in him and then Oikawa chuckles. Such soft sound making Iwaizumi's heart _thump_ , _thump_ , _thump_.

" _Hajime-chan~_ You're making a funny face."

Another _click_ and then Iwaizumi realizes and is brought to earth.

 

* * *

 

He remembers that Oikawa Tooru is only like the sun and  _not_ the sun. He's made out of the universe and infinite possibilities but _not really_ , because he's also made out of skin and bones and muscles thrived by sweat and tears when he fights everything tooth and claw.

He's just human, the childhood friend who always called him _Hajime-chan_  with a scar on his forehead. His hair isn't the tail of the comet but is made graceful by careful threading of fingers. His eyes are not made out of stars, not a constellation or a whole galaxy, but the mist and passion make them appear to be.

Iwaizumi forgets Oikawa Tooru is actually in the physical realm, in the same dimension he's in and not someone as otherworldly like in his 12 AM and subconscious fantasies. He's just like him just like he is to Oikawa, someone he can reach out to with a stretch of an arm and a clasp on the hand, a mumble of a  _come here, will you?_

—and so he reaches out to him.

 

* * *

 

"Iwa-chan, just because I'm leaving for Tokyo doesn't mean I'm-"

"Hey, Tooru."

Oikawa blinks at him, obviously caught off-guard by the sudden interruption and call of his first name. Iwaizumi chuckles breathily, mind in his heart and heart in his throat. He's never been so sure before.

"I love you."

Chilly summer breeze bites on hot grounds and ruffles on sweat-stained hair.

Iwaizumi Hajime doesn't fear silence. Because silence means pondering in his own thoughts alone in concentration. It means deliberating and weighing out rationale and feelings, contemplating what's right or not, deciding what's to be carried out and said. And yet even in a crucial situation like this, it's bizarre how he feels calm and sure, but Oikawa isn't saying anything so he tells him again. Much clearer, more certain.

"I love you, Tooru."

Seconds, minutes pass and he waits and waits for him until neutrality slides past Oikawa's face and an unbidden sob trickles his lip. He gapes at Iwaizumi with a look somewhat of shock, disbelief and most of all, like an old weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He's seen that look before—for instance, whenever he reaches out to Oikawa after receiving his silent pleads of help.

 _Relief_.

"...what?"

Iwaizumi chuckles. His smile appears so genuine it physically hurts him and makes him weak. He shrugs, and with 5 years worth of courage dressed on his heart, he makes a makeshift megaphone out of cold summer hands. And there from the highest elevation, he tells the entire expanse of the city of Sendai 3,800 feet down below, past the buzzing of vehicles and city lights and night stars. Louder. Brighter. _For the universe to hear_.

“ _I love you, Oikawa Tooru!_ "

There's a weight on his chest, figuratively and literally, when Oikawa and his 184-centimeter glory jumps at and mauls him into the warmest of embraces. Somewhere distant in his head, he hears Coldplay's  _Lovers in Japan_  on play and laughs his entire heart out of absurdity, pulling Oikawa in a much tighter hug than he's ever done to him.

"I feel the same," Oikawa murmurs into his shoulder and Iwaizumi feels his heart ricochet higher than into the earth's stratosphere.

He catches Oikawa's face in his palm and decides to taunt him. "Feel what?"

He expects a dragging whine or a quip that will lead to an all-night banter, but certainly doesn't anticipate warm, soft lips on his mouth. It's _real_ and he feels it to his every bones.

Before he loses his mind entirely, he catches Oikawa's lips in between his and kisses him with much fervor and longing, framing his small face with hands that he realizes are a little bigger. They roll around the grass with smiles too painful to contain and then Iwaizumi is on top of him. Oikawa, surely aware he'll spend tomorrow on bed with newly acquired allergies, does his own business by pulling Iwaizumi down by the neck and gripping at the back of his hair just as the victim promptly finds out he loves it very much. And really, _for real_ , Coldplay's _Lovers in Japan_ plays in the background for somehow, Oikawa's phone is ringing from a call from his mother, probably in inquiry to where his son is. Should he tell her he's out kissing his best friend on the grass of the peak of Mount Izumigatake?

"That I love you, silly Iwa-chan," Oikawa breathes out, breathtakingly breathless and lips raw from minutes of first-kissing. Iwaizumi takes a world record-breaking achievement from smiling ten minutes straight.

"I have another thing to confess," Iwaizumi tells him after he rolls off of him and sits up properly. He can hear Oikawa's breath hitch and prods him to follow, in which he obeys and intertwines their hands tightly. He smiles at him just as softly as he can manage and then with his free hand, he sweeps his fingers through Oikawa's bangs, kisses the barely noticeable _but there_  scar just as he mutters, "I got accepted to Chuo."

Oikawa's eyes soften a first few unnerving seconds later, and then his face contorts into something Hajime is so, so familiar with. Something he wants to kiss into ease. With a warm weight in his arms and even warmer tears on his shoulder, he holds him as steady and sure as the happiness that fills him to the brim.

"What's up with you and surprises? You know I hate surprises and yet I feel oddly happy."

Iwaizumi places a kiss to his ear and pulls him closer. "As long as you'll be happy I'm willing to go over the boundaries of what you hate."

Oikawa attempts to laugh and yet it comes out as a sob. "You're so mean. Mean Iwa-chan." He pulls out of the hug with a face full of snot and tears and yet Iwaizumi still thinks he's the most wonderful to look at. "I guess Iwa-chan will be stuck with me for the next years, then?"

"If you'll have me, then, we should start living together," Iwaizumi remarks casually and smirks as Oikawa goes into a full blush. He stands on his feet and extends his hand for him to hold. "Come on. Let's go home."

"Even if you are a brute and have a caveman lifestyle, it's not like I can refuse," Oikawa snorts, gripping on the hand held out and tries to ignore the occurring itch on the back of his neck. He can't. "Ah, Iwa-chan, my neck's getting itchy."

"Don't scratch it until we put some ointment on," Iwaizumi warns, placing another lingering kiss to his forehead. Despite an hour's worth of sweating, he still smells mildly like vanilla. "Sorry. I'll take you home quick, alright?"

Oikawa guesses the heat on his skin might have helped subsiding the itch, after all. Iwaizumi holds his hand safe and secured as they both glide down from the summit, sturdy arms more than able to hold him down from potential peril. What would have happened to him if he isn't there in the first place? In the beginning?

Iwaizumi had been his earth that made him grounded. He's the leash on his foot that tied him to the soil and the weight in his heart that kept him from floating afar or sliding down into danger.

As they head back home, they surely know one thing in common—it’s that the sun and earth will never drift far away from each other. Maybe they will, but not in the next 5 billion years, yet even so it's enough time close to infinity to prove the entire universe the wonders they both show.

Iwaizumi tips his head up the stars of Sendai and then at Oikawa and thinks, he might not be able to see these in the dense Tokyo sky but he'll always have the nearest star within a breadth's reach— _always by my side_.

"Your home or mine?"

"My AC is broken and Iwa-chan's room is much more comfortable even though it looks like a rat's nest."

He loves him like heaven.

"You're a piece of shit."

**Author's Note:**

> songs on loop are coldplay's always in my head, army of one, the escapist, lovers in japan, us against the world and strawberry swing! they make everything ethereal.
> 
> did i do this right? do let me know in the comments!
> 
> i'm also at [sund0wns](https://sund0wns.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! meet me there and hmu or scream at iwaoi with me


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